
Installing aLinux was a bit tricky.
And in the end. ....
This VDI us a HACK!!
We were unable to get the SWAP partition to function.
This is how it went....
The installation process went well until LILO installation failed. The installation did say that the LILO configuration could be completed after the reboot.
Even without LILO installed we should have been able to start the OS.
"vmlinuz root=/dev/hda?" started the boot process but froze
"vmlinuz root=/dev/hda? nohz=off nosmp" started the boot process but froze
Next Approach;
-Disable APCI and disable IO APCI
Booting from liveCD then using the options to boot the VDI image
"It works!!" Great.....
This is not what we want. But we are getting close. (OR ARE WE?)
Attempting to install Lilo using the Distro CD FAILED.
It would appear that there is a problem with the partitions.
Next Approach;
So we start over again with a new Virtual Disk. And assume that the issue has to do with the partitioning of the the HDD we will use another distro to partition the HDD.
-Create a blank, bootable, linux partition using "Xubuntu LiveCD"
-Format the partitions
Here we created two partitions on the drive.
/dev/hda1 20Gig ext2 (formatted) Bootable
/dev/hda2 500Meg Linux Swap (formatted)
Note: (The order of these partitions on the drive seems to cause the VDI image to increase in size, much faster than if the Linux Swap partition was the first partition. Hmmmmm)
Now that we created our partitions this should be easy.
Restart the Virtual Machine with;
-Linux.iso distro mounted
-Virtual Disk that we just formated.
-boot the machine
-go through the installation process
-Do not allow aLinux to reformat the partitions
At this point LILO still would not install on the MBR , but would install on the Root. So it looks good.
-Reboot the system
This should be it right ? No.
The problem now is getting the X Windows to run. There are libraries missing.
Retried this process thinking that there must have been something that we missed and checked the logs...
The Swap Partition is still failing to be recognized. Hmmmm.
Next Approach; (The VDI as released)
No Swap Partition.
Yes, this is a VERY BAD IDEA.
Yes, the system will have performance issues, if it will run at all.
We did the same thing as the last attempt
-Start with new Virtual Disk
-Partition Drive with xubuntu distro. (One single "ext2, bootable, formatted)
-Restart the machine with aLinux.iso distro mounted
-Install system (DO NOT LET aLinux installation format the HDD)
-Add LILO options (nosmp nohz=off) during LILO installation
-Reboot system
DONE! aLinux OS 12.8 VDI
. . . . . . . . . .. .
There are many Operating System that cause problems during installation. The aLinux installation process to approximately 20hrs of trial and error.
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Thank You
James